Lahaina wants hospital, senior center and green spaces

By Yiming Fu, Report for America corps member

Parks are essential for Lahaina Strong organizer Jordan Ruidas. Standing at a microphone in front of Maui’s County Council, Ruidas asked for money to create shaded playgrounds at Lahaina Park and Kelawea Mauka Park. 

Building up these green spaces will restore the heart of the town, Ruidas said, and kids need clean, comfortable and accessible places to play. 

“These parks are not just recreational areas, they’re gathering spaces, spaces for healing and symbols of hope and resilience,” Ruidas said. “We can’t talk about recovery without investing in places that hold our community together.” 

Lahaina resident Mikey Burke said West Maui’s parks are sparse and lacking, often with little shade, few trash cans and play structures that don’t cater to younger kids.

Front Street, which burned in the August 2023 fires, was the walkable center of Lahaina town. Still, it lacked parks and green space where families could sit down and children could run around. 

More than thirty residents testified about their hopes and needs for Lahaina’s future at the Lahaina Civic Center recently as part of Maui County’s budget process. The testimony may shape how council members and the mayor allocate funding this year. 

Many residents advocated for green spaces, gardening and native plant initiatives like West Maui GreenCycle and Kaiaulu Initiatives. Other big priorities included keiki and kupuna care, and continued funding for the Lahaina Community Land Trust which keeps Lahaina’s properties for locals only.

Medical and Kupuna care

Hedy Udarbe leads the Lahaina-Honolua Senior Citizens Club and asked Maui County to support all programs impacting seniors, including the MEO bus that takes seniors to their doctors appointments, the mall, the post office and more. 

West Maui’s senior center burned down in the Lahaina fires, which provided activities from yoga, taichi to sewing, line dancing and movie nights for Lahaina’s large senior population. Udarbe said there are almost 100 members in her group, 70% of which lost their homes in the fires and 10% had their homes marked unlivable. 

“Finally they’re able to meet their fellow members, they get together, contact each other, chit chat together, keep in touch of what’s going on and slowly they healed together. They’re such a close-knit family.”

Many seniors live alone, and attending activities helps them make new friends and interact with other seniors, which keeps their minds alert and bodies strong. 

Michelle Sendana advocated for a West Maui hospital. Sendana is a West Maui resident, retired U.S. Army soldier and full-time real estate broker. 

West Maui residents rely on the single lane Honoapiilani Highway to access a hospital, which can take 45 minutes to one hour.

“I’ve heard heartbreaking stories of families from families who did not survive the journey,” Sendana said.

Sendana herself was a caretaker for her father with cancer. And she’s rushed her father to the emergency room multiple times, often in the middle of the night. She said her friend also gave birth on the way to the Central Maui hospital. 

“Our community has been through unimaginable loss and trauma,” Sendana said. “Building the West Maui hospital is not just about convenience. It’s about resilience, preparedness and protecting lives in the face of future emergencies.” 

Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands

Local kupuna Ginger Prince asked to give the upmost consideration to the Lahaina Community Land Trust.

“As we all know, Lahaina was about the people, and we’ve lost so many people. And the land trust is really helping keep them in their land to get them back to their land, and that’s the heart of Lahaina.”

Carolyn Auweloa, the director of the Lahaina Community Land Trust, testified on the need for continued funding. The Land Trust purchases Lahaina properties to keep them only for local residents.

The land trust just acquired their seventh property, Auweloa said, made possible by the support the county council, donors and funders. 

The first four participants are signing paper work with 10 more in the queue, Auweloa said. 

“We will quickly have spent out the allocation for last year, but we could really use more support to help us continue this important work.” 

Honoring history

Maui County also needs to uplift Lahaina’s cultural history, Lahaina resident Kanani Puou said, because Lahaina was important to the island of Maui and Hawai’i at large. 

“Lahaina was once the capital, and I think history needs to be brought back to Lahaina,” Puou said. 

Now the island focuses on tourism, Puou said, with only one small sign that addresses Lahaina’s Hawaiian history. 

“There needs to be something put in the budget,” Puou said, “I’m just here as a passionate kanaka and proud person to be from this place.”